Consciousness and the Collapse of the Wave Function

The Copenhagen interpretation gives rise to the problem of the collapse of the wave function, since, in accordance with the linearity of the equations of quantum mechanics, measurement procedures should not destroy the multiplicity of states describing alternative versions of measurement results. If we reject the collapse of the wave function, but maintain the multiplicity of superposed states, claiming that each of them is carried out in a separate classical world, then we become supporters of the Everett interpretation of quantum mechanics. This view assumes the proliferation of the conscious subject, which contradicts the essence of consciousness that is not subject to duplication due to its subjective nature and its inherent private knowledge. The Copenhagen and Everett interpretation of quantum mechanics is opposed by the theory of decoherence, which allows us to explain the transition of quantum existence to the classical one without using the physically incorrect concept of the collapse of the wave function. However, the theory of decoherence does not completely solve the problem of the quantum world acquiring classical features that are found in the perception of a conscious subject. This suggests a subjective-idealistic conclusion (shared by such leading scientists as Werner Heisenberg, Johm von Neumann, Eugene Wigner, Roger Penrose, Michael B. Mensky) that the reason for the collapse of the superposition of possible states is mental in nature and therefore does not find an adequate place in the physical picture of the world. Quantum-physical experiments conducted over the past few decades (for example, an experiment conducted by a group of scientists from the University of Vienna led by Anton Zeilinger) refute this ontological position and prove that the collapse of the wave function is caused not by observational knowledge, but by the natural presence or artificial production of the necessary amount of information, which ensures the transition from possible existence to reality due to the redistribution of probabilities associated with the state of the physical system. Thus, it is possible not to abandon the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics and keep the phenomenon of wave function collapse (instead of replacing it entirely by the phenomenon of decoherence, whereby the world finds the classic features, but is not yet actually classic) if to understand the collapse of the wave function as the objectively existing process of informational nature. This process does not adequately fit into the physical picture of the world without taking into account the information components of material existence and thus causes misunderstandings and paradoxes that force us to attribute to consciousness the role of a link between the quantum world and the classical one.

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